Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is the best Metal Gear game. Arguably, anyway. It's certainly my favorite, but today it faces one of 2017's GOTY contenders. It's no Breath of the Wild or Mario Odyssey but Persona 5 will be a challenge for the PlatinumGames' title.

★There are three different ways you can vote:
- 1 point: A simple vote, just the name of the game.
- 3 points: An extended vote, around 5 sentences long, on why you are voting for the game. I generally measure these votes as extended as long as they reach 2 1/2 lines on the gray theme, as it is consistent across devices.
- Power bomb vote (6 pts): A mega extended vote, of at least 400 words. This type of vote is only allowed in 1 match of the entire tourney and nothing more. USE IT WISELY. *not allowed in the Final Four or Championship matches*
- Prelim voters will gain an extra point this year, just like the Fall, as I'd like participation to be awarded. So just add one point to each score tally above. ★

This is the latest entry in the Persona series after waiting nearly a decade since the release of Persona 4. It is safe to say that P5 has fulfilled its promises of delivering a tight, high production JRPG experience that throws you into the life of a high school student who moves to a new town as an outcast as you awaken to the mysterious power of Persona. In Persona 5 you can live your second life and I'd argue it's the best role playing game of this entire generation. The soundtrack is great, battles are stylish and have a cell shaded pop anime aesthetic to them and the world of this in game Tokyo is full of life. It's up to the player to decide what to do with their time. You can work jobs, hang out with friends, watch romantic comedies with your cat, date your hot teacher and much much more. Persona 5 is my favorite game on the PS4 and it's my 2017 GOTY.

Rising's not my favorite PlatinumGames title, but it's nowhere near their worst game either. Yeah, it's a little button mashy. And yeah, it's got some stupid slow walking sections. The scripted events definitely get old. The grading system has some problems. But, this game's got a lot of heart. It started life as an aborted KojiPro game, and Plat came in to save the day. Who wouldn't root for an underdog?

Voting for Metal Gear Rising. I like Persona 5 overall, but it also featured many sections that I found quite tedious, especially with some of the late game dungeons. Metal Gear Rising is short and sweet, and certainly doesn't outstay its welcome . Indeed, like most Platinum games, it's one you'll want to immediately replay once the credits roll. It also has a robot dog, and that's way cooler than a talking cat!

It's not a particularly great RPG, and I've only made it about 3/4 of the way in. The characters had the depth of what nerds think common stereotypes should be, reducing them to worthless tropes. Especially the mentally defective hacker girl I wanted to punch. In contract, Metal Gear: Rising is one of the greatest Platinum games and easily the best of the Metal Gear franchise by freeing itself from the shit-stain of boring talking bits and stealth. However, Hatoful Boyfriend is my true love, and I feel that MG:R will pose a greater threat to it than Persona 5, as the weeb crew will flock (heh) towards the pigeon dating simulator.

An amazing platinum game and the best Metal Gear game by a country mile no matter what anyone says and I'm making this extended vote a run on sentence because the Senator Armstrong fight is badass and Raiden is finally not a little bitch anymore unlike in MGS2 where he whines and whines and whines and here he's all "TIME TO LET 'ER RIP" and I'm like HOLY SHIT THAT'S BADASS and he slices and dices and the mechanics are so fucking good, even if you can kind abuse the parry system here and there also playing as Jetstream Sam is fucking badass they even made the DLC fucking fantastic.